The Visual Lived Reality of Women and its Representation in Miniature Paintings of Khamsa Tahmasbi

Problem Statement: Khamsah of Nezami is one of the greatest books of Persian literature, which has been highly regarded by the miniature artiste of different times due to its romantic and lyrical poems; beyond this, it provides a salient context for field of social history and presents the cultural status of women in specific historical eras. The visual lived reality illustrated by the women images in Khamsah of Tahmasebi, including customs, traditions and socio-cultural conditions of them in the Safavid era, can be well studied in these miniature paintings. these representations are in somehow expressing the conditions of daily life of women in their historical transition. Research Method To get the research aim, the theory of different fields` influences on creating artworks by Pierre Bourdieu was applied to discuss the extent of the influence of historical and social fields of Safavid in illustrating women images in Khamsah of Tahmasbi. However, the question here is that: 1. what aspects of women lives in the Safavid era are presented in the miniature paintings of Khamsah Tahmasbi and 2. which social and historical fields have been influenced by it? We conclude that the images of women in Khamsah Tahmasbi, due to the strict supremacy of the Shah and the Safavid court, the "court women" are mostly depicted and, contrary to the views of traditionalists, who believe in presentation of an imaginary world, many public customs and beliefs, or the realities of Safavid society are represented by them.